A line at the upper left-hand corner of the picture reads “Everybody has the right to be beautiful.” The woman standing below is surely that, dressed in beauty-pageant regalia, Atlantic waves meeting Angolan sands behind her. She is Miss Landmine Angola 2007. Showcased in the photograph are the attributes classically aligned with feminine beauty: high cheekbones, full lips, a curvaceous figure. Yet it is what the photograph, shot from the waist up, hides that makes her beauty a thing unparalleled, unusual, both tragic and wonderful. The lower half of her left leg is missing, a testament to her encounter with a landmine. She is one of several women featured in the Miss Landmine Angola project to raise awareness about the world’s plague of landmines and to empower those who have survived them. Learn about the project and see this year’s contestants at Miss-Landmine.org. —Morgan Winters
There She Is, Miss Landmine Angola
